Nine amazing super senses that only a few people possess

Among us there are people with incredible abilities that often they themselves don’t know they have because they are the result of genetics or are hardly recognizable.

They are like super powers ...

Imagine that you can see millions of shades of colors or that you can find orientation in space by snapping your tongue. Enhanced senses are not a myth, but people who have them are very rare. Sometimes their capabilities are hard to imagine, but there are people with one or more of these super senses. They surround us every day, and neither we nor they know it.

9. Supertesters

People who experience tastes with more intensity than others have the ability of super taste, and scientists call them Supertesters. They believe that this ability of theirs is based on a greater number of tasty papillae on the tongue. Out of 5 flavors - sweet, spicy, sour, salty and bitter, supertesters generally say that they most feel the bitter taste.

The ability of super taste was first noticed when the chemist Arthur Fox in his study asked people to taste PTC (phenyl-thiourea) and found that 75 percent of people recognize the taste of PTC, 50 percent of people agreed that they sensed it moderately and only 25 percent respondents testified about its strong bitterness.

Supertesters often avoid drinking coffee and grapefruit juice, as well as eating cabbage and endivia salad, reports BBC.

8. Absolute pitch

People with absolute pitch may differentiate tones without any help. It is believed that one child in 10.000 is born with absolute pitch, and they are able to recognize thousands of different sounds and tones. Absolute pitch is the ability not only to hear, but also to identify and qualify sounds in memorized categories.

There are different opinions on whether the absolute pitch is genetic or learned ability. A number of scientists believe that absolute pitch is the consequence of being strongly influenced by the music in key developmental stages of life.

It is believed that in Europe 8 percent of the population has absolute pitch, while for example in Japanese music conservatories there are as many as 70 percents of musicians with absolute pitch. Also, absolute pitch is common in people who were born blind, who have William's syndrome, or are partially autistic.

Tetrachromacy is the ability to see light from four different sources, it is very rare and so far there have only been found two possible tetrachromats.

People are usually trichromats because they have three types of conical cells (three cones) responsible for vision in color. Usually we can see the light from red, blue or green part of the spectrum of light. Each of the cones can recognize about 100 shades of color, and since the brain combines colors and shades, tetrachromats can identify about 1 million shades of colors around us.

A real tetrachromat with a cone between red and green (in the spectrum of orange), theoretically could perceive 100 million colors.

Tetrachromacy is considered to be more common in women than in men, and on the other hand, color blindness is considered to be much more common in men who received genes from the tetrachromatic mother.

People with tetrachromacy: Concetta Antico, Maureen Seaberg.

6. Echolocation​

The best example of echolocation in nature are bats. They fly dark areas and emit sounds and then wait for the echo and calculate the time necessary for the sound to come back – and that way place different objects in the space around them. It is surprising that people are also capable of echolocation.

Echolocation is limited to people who can’t see and orient themselves in space.

Most famous people who have the ability of echolocation: James Holman, Daniel Kish and Ben Underwood.

5. Genetic chimerism​

Genetic chimerism, or tetragametism occurs when two fertilized embryos joint in early pregnancy. Each zygote carries a copy of the DNA of their parents, and thus a different genetic profile. After merging each of the zygotes keeps its genetic profile, and the embryo becomes a mixture of both genetic profiles. Basically, man chimera is his own twin.

Chimerism is very rare in humans and so far there were only 40 people recorded with this condition. Magazine Scientific American published an article in which it is explained that chimerism is not rare any more, since in women during pregnancy it can happen that a small number of cells from the fetus enters their bloodstream, or in patients who have had bone marrow transplant to have their DNA and the DNA of the donor.

Most famous people with genetic chimerism: Karen Keegan

4. Synesthesia

Synesthesia is the ability of some people to feel spontaneously and associate stimuli of one sense with other senses. For example, a man is looking into the sunny sky in the winter and suddenly feels the warmth. People with synesthesia that way can connect visual experiences such as colors or objects from memory with sound stimuli.

Synesthetes very well distinguish between true stimuli from the surrounding and stimuli that come from their other senses thanks to synesthesia (stimuli they created themselves).

Synesthesia is a neurological condition that can’t be called a disorder because it doesn’t affect people's daily functioning. Research conducted in 2006 showed that one of 23 people has synesthesia.

Most famous synesthetes: Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Feynman, Olliver Messiaen and Daniel Tammet, who is also a human calculator.

3. Human calculators

Autistic savants are the most extraordinary group of people skilled at performing complex mental calculations. Although there are many people who have learned to do complex mathematical operations by heart - mostly mathematicians, writers and linguists - the most interesting are the people who have no training, but whose ability comes from within.

Most people calculators were born with Savant syndrome, which we still don’t fully understand. Some people even develop it later in life, usually after a head injury.

There are currently less than 100 recognized Savants in the world, and even fewer autistic savants who are able to perform memorized complex mathematical operations. Recent studies have shown that blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for mathematical calculations is six to seven times higher in people calculators compared to the average person.

Most famous human calculators: Daniel McCartney, Salo Finkelstein, Alexander Aitken and Daniel Tammet, who is one of the few autistic savants.

When we say that someone has a photographic memory, we are actually talking about eidetic memory. It is the ability to recall sounds, images or objects from your memory with incredible accuracy. Such people are able to describe their memory to the smallest detail.

Most famous people with eidetic memory are:

Akira Haraguchi - who memorized the first 100.000 decimal numbers of the number pi.

Stephen Wiltshire - has been given a nickname ‘human camera’ due to his ability to draw buildings and the nature he had seen only once

with perfect accuracy.

Kim Peek - most famous savant in the world who served as an inspiration for the main character in the movie ‘Rain Man’. He was known by his nickname’the Computer’, because he had the ability to store all the information that would reach him.

1. Immortal cells​

Until now, it was confirmed that there was only one person with immortal cells - Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951 of cancer. The surgeon who operated on Henrietta took a sample of the tissue from her tumor without her knowledge or permission and forwarded it to dr George Gray, a scientist who worked as director of research of cell cultures at John Hopkins University.

Cancer cells, known as HeLa cells today, which were sent to Dr. Gray, with their endless replication enabled 60 years of research in medicine. Research conducted on HeLa cells led to discoveries important for the whole world, as for example a cure for polio or the major steps in the fight against AIDS, cancer and other diseases.